kgallen
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Posts posted by kgallen
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These are great, Jon. I’m thoroughly enjoying them and learning. Tyler is doing a great job and you’re just a natural. Edward comes across on the FLX S videos like he’s been doing it for years! Great work guys!
Kevin
ps sometimes sound goes a little muffled when the presenter turns towards the desk - maybe a lower lav mic placement on the shirt and a little more compression and make up gain?
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This is one downside with "one" codebase, "ZerOS", needing to support many hardware platforms that have quite diverse control surfaces - Frog2, LeapFrog 48/96, SCD Server Pro, Orb, Orb XF, then FLX, now FLX S 24 and 48, and that's not including any internal hardware variations within these platforms. Checking against all of these platforms for input then conditioning the output accordingly must be quite a burden on the CPU and a real headache for the software team! And that's before we start running any lighting related tasks like cue stacks and FX engines. It seems, and frustratingly but quite rightly, the CPU effort is prioritised to generating the DMX stream. The usability though sounds just disastrous for your (ziglights) typical use cases.
The tricky choice for the Zero88 team is like what just happened with Frog2 - do they continue to try to support the "older" probably "slower" hardware platforms or do they start to drop off the supported list. This is clearly tricky if the products are still current range like Solution! At some point in the future, the FLX processing power will be the "slow one" - although I'm hopeful that there is a little more headroom there with the quad-core implementation - and no LCDs (note to those users who want LCD scribble strips!).
The other option is to diverge the software to be more specific to the hardware platform. But that then becomes an engineering headache supporting all of the branched streams of code development.
I sympathise with both the users and the developers!
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Lovin' (no 'g') them so far!
(If you're not of a certain age... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03048pd)
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Hi Jon, it’s possible the answers are less ‘black and white’ than the poll allows. I use my FLX in several different configurations depending on the complexity of the show. It’s likely Solution users are similar. Maybe you need more detail like ‘always use a mouse’ or ‘happy to always require a mouse ‘?
Kevin
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19 hours ago, kgallen said:
IanK - get on this one quick!
See, he's like a genie in a bottle!
One quick rub and... oh, hold on, this isn't going in the right direction at all...! 
It must be getting towards panto season...
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I don't think that's any excuse. They get what they put (or don't put) in the spec, so they should spec the requirements better. As a company they are wanting to elevate themselves from DJ gear to the pro world so they should get a grip on their specs!
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7 minutes ago, Edward- Z88 said:
But to Sean the OP, don't worry about doing a battery change if you're not bothered, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Edward - in LF48/96 does the battery retain showfile information or just time/date like Jon says for FLX?
(Honest, I'll let you have some peace and quiet in a minute...!)
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Cunning! Thumbs-up. Thanks Edward - I thought the ZerOS LF48/96's were blue. Is my CR2032 comment valid for this desk?
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The OPs picture shows a green facia - so it looks like a Mk1 Leap Frog (FrogOS) rather than a Leap Frog 48/96 (ZerOS)... So this thread is in the wrong Forum and we need to be careful to give the correct advice for this particular console due to the ambiguous naming.
Edward:
Maybe you could clarify which side screws need removing as I suspect this is not all of them. For example on a Fat Frog, only the two lowest ones need to be removed to get into the system tray for e.g. replacing the coin cell. On a Leap Frog with the bigger chassis, maybe more need to be removed, but possibly not all - which would result in all metalwork coming apart in big mess!
To the OP:
Before you go in there, get yourself a CR2032 coin cell, and whilst you're fixing the wheel, replace the motherboard battery at the same time.
See: http://support.zero88.com/Consoles/ORB-XF/975067721/Replacement-Battery-Information.htm
And also maybe check the software version you're running. Your desk looks to me to be a Mk1 Leap Frog, in which case the latest FrogOS software is 10.12: http://support.zero88.com/Legacy-products/Legacy-Consoles/Frog-Series/975242041/Frog-Series-Overview-Software.htm
IanK - get on this one quick!
Kevin
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That's a bit disappointing for Chauvet - they're not the cheapest of fixtures. I think the problem can come about from as simple an issue as not decoding the start code byte for 0x00 which denotes a normal DMX packet. An RDM packet has 0xCC in this position. When the fixture doesn't enforce the 0x00 decode it interprets any RDM packet as a normal DMX packet. I guess the reason the higher addressing works as Jon suggests it that the RDM packets are shorter than a full 512-channel DMX packet and thus the fixture, which is counting channels up to its own, finds the inter-packet BREAK first and thus the RDM packet gets ignored by that means.
Flicker is listed on the Wikipedia RDM page ("Compatibility with existing DMX hardware") as a symptom of fixtures not decoding the start code as they should.
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47 minutes ago, JamesBH said:
3 of the 14 quad 7s flickered when the rest were fine which is why I was confused.
That is weird. Were the 3 flickerers(!) much earlier in the DMX addressing as Jon eludes to? Do those fixtures support RDM?
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Hmmm....
25 minutes ago, Jon Hole said:Another useful trick is addressing the fixture into the higher numbers. Usually above address 32 helps, but if not above address 257 should definitely help.
Interesting. My "problem" fixture stopped flickering recently. Initially when I was playing with it out of the box I had it (probably) at address 0. More recently I moved it up to 220 to fit into the rig DMX map and it hasn't flickered since, so there is wisdom in that suggestion! I think I'll have a play with some addressing and maybe check out some of my other fixtures!
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Some ‘cheap’ fixtures aren’t compatible with RDM because they aren’t truly DMX compliant. This usually manifests itself as a flicker in the fixture because the fixture incorrectly interprets the RDM data as DMX. You need to put the fixture onto a separately DMX universe or turn off RDM/RigSync on that universe and patch/configure manually. With FLX S24 there is only one universe so you can either turn off RigSync and patch the whole rig manually or remove the fixture. As it sounds like a fixed install then once it’s all configured you’re done anyway.
It's also worth checking you added DMX terminators at the appropriate places.
I recently bought (new) such an intolerant fixture too which is annoying...
So in summary, it’s not the FLX S, it’s the fixture.
Just to check - do your other fixtures support RDM? If some don’t then you’ll have to do manual patch and configure on those anyway. As you’re suggesting you’re a supplier/installer I’m going to assume you understand what RDM and DMX are and what they can/can't do for you and what the requirements on the fixtures are!
Hope that helps.
Kevin
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Eric - I’d get some quotes for FLX. The numbers I see quoted list and on e.g. eBay are not representative. At those levels I never could have afforded my FLX. From what you’ve said I think you should look towards the ‘mother’ FLX to give you maximum flexibility and expansion scope. The FLX S range look darn good but I’m guessing FLX would be the one for you.
I don’t work for Zero88!
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It could be that on higher Jester models (ML, TL) maybe more RAM is fitted?
Or it could be as my earlier post that "1.n" to "999.n" is just a reference and you can have 500 of them!
Seems like you need to save quickly for that FLX!
All the best,
Kevin
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Thanks Jon.
For future reference, "beta" above refers to ~7.9.2.60 (probably) or later. This function is thus expected to be production in 7.9.3.
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(On which note, Jon's graphic is not being displayed this morning - seemed to be showing ok last night...). Admittedly I'm on my work laptop this morning and last night on my home PC. But both Win10 and Chrome browser.
ETA: Hmmm, rendering ok at home still...! Weird. Maybe a firewall at work...
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Hi Pip,
Just a thought to check: the new software will need to be in the root directory of the USB drive otherwise the desk won't see it. Can you check that's the case?
Kevin
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Nice one!
Bet it took you longer to find that graphic than add the tab!
Thanks Jon!
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Poke - to ask if 7.9.3 as the "third" might have this in? Thanks.
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Hi Eric,
2 hours ago, van den abbeele Eric said:C /
In program mode, is there a way to access Presets 1/24 (Up) + 25/48 (Down) live?
Or is it possible to only have 24 presets and 24 Submasters?I'm not sure I fully follow your question, but I had a bit of a read of the manual around this. I will base my comments on you saying you have a Jester 24/48 which has two rows of 24 faders in a 2-preset organisation.
If I understood the manual correctly... I didn't find it fully unambiguous myself...
In Program Mode, you will be using the faders to set the lighting levels of 24 lighting channels (traditional 2-preset fader layout), or 48 channels if you're in Wide mode (2-preset emulation based on one set of 48 physical faders with software paging). In Program Mode, the channel flash buttons are used to program the submaster that will correspond to that same number once in Run mode. When in Program Mode you don't actually have any submaster faders i.e. you can't assemble a lighting look using submasters in order to program a memory.
Once you're in Run mode then you have a fixed mix of fader usage. The top row of faders [Preset A] can be used as HTP overrides of the given channel. Those channels will be 1-24 and if you are set for Wide mode, then you'll have to use [Page A] button to get access to channels 25-48.
Similarly, when in Run Mode, the bottom row of faders [Preset B] are devoted to submasters. Initially that is submasters 1-24 and you press [Page B] button to get to submasters 25-48.
So in Run mode, you can't operate the faders as 2x24 or 1x48 (Wide). Nor can you operate them as 48 submasters. The mix of channel control and submaster is fixed.
In fairness to Zero88 I think they packed a lot of functionality onto the faders in as simple method as they could. Giving other "mix" options would arguably be beyond the use model of customers adopting such a console. The predecessor of the Jester 24/48, the Alcora, which I have, does not have any submaster capability, and this looks to be a great addition on the Jester, even if it doesn't have the assignment flexibility maybe you seek.
I'd get that FLX asap if I were you!
Hope that was of some assistance. Of course, if that changed in later software versions to the manual, I'm ignorant to that!
Kevin
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I can't post in "News and Announcements" so have to start a topic here.
We used to be able to get back to the main Zero88 site from the Forum. There doesn't seem to be a click zone to do that now. OK, so I just edit off the "/forum" bit in the URL but that is a bit of a drag because I have to wake my fingers up.
When I'm helping other users on your behalf
(*) it can be necessary to go back to the main site to provide a link for documentation/software/related products etc so making this easy helps us help you 
if you are able to add this.
Thanks, Kevin
* Yes I know the Forum is there for users to help users and is not there just for Zero88 to answer questions, but you get my drift
. I'm a resource not on the payroll...!
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Hi Eric,
I suspect what you need are a complete set of Release Notes to bridge between the Software Version described in the manual and that on the desk. With the Fat Frog, the most recent, most powerful, most radical and sometimes most useful features were described (in some detail) in the release notes!
I found this page for the Jester. There are release notes, but from a quick glance they only seem to cover the most recent changes. Maybe you can find some useful information here. After that maybe Jon or Ed (Zero88) can fill in the blanks for you.
http://support.zero88.com/Legacy-products/Legacy-Consoles/Jester-12-24-24-48/975199541/Jester.htm
Kevin
Jon: The "Software Update" link for Jester is broken on the top Lighting Consoles page, This one: http://zero88.com/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/List/Index/32/software
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22 minutes ago, van den abbeele Eric said:
On my new console version 4.1R2 I indeed 1 to 999. And I tried a few minutes ago the insert and it works too.
That could make 9999 memories ... which seems to me a lot ...
So is this an improvement of memory?
A bug ?If I understood you correctly, just because the desk will allow 10 inserts (on other desks this is 10 "point" cues) on a cue numbered anything 1-999 it does not mean the desk has the internal memory to hold 10 inserts on every memory 1-999. I would understand it that the desk can hold 500 memories. You can number these 500 memories using a cue number of the format nnn.m.
So for example you might have cues (viz "memories") 1,2,3,5,7,7.5,15,15.2,15.8,17,20 etc etc where there are no more than 500 of these.
The point cues usually come about because during programming the director asks for a lighting change between the cues you have already recorded. Gaps in the numbering happen because you delete a cue or decide you didn't want to record that cue in the first place.
Certainly in my experience, when I prepare my proposed cue list from the script and discussions with the director, when I get to tech rehearsal and actually do the programming, the director asks for an unplanned change, which can results in a point cue (so I don't have to renumber cues in all of my documentation), or I/we decide not to do a lighting change we had envisaged to do - which results in a gap in the numbering. It seems Jester has this sort of flexibility - which for example I did not have with my first programmable desk, the Alcora - where I had to strategically leave blank memory (cue) numbers in case I needed an "insert"!
On FLX, you can have 100 "point" cues, for example a cue numbered 15.24, but that does not mean the desk has memory capacity for 9999x100 cues.
HTH
Kevin
FLX hints & tips Advent Calendar
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Well if you did them fully in-house then all credit to you all - very professional! As usual I'm just being a bit picky! It's a great idea - and having an edit of outtakes for Boxing Day is genius!
Actually, I loved Tyler's (scripted) line from 0:52 on Day 3: when describing the new Add Fixtures: "if you want your fixtures to start every 10, I can actually say Patch Offset of '20'' "